His eyes stayed locked on mine now.
“Every deployment after that got easier because combat was simpler than thinking about you.”
My breath caught painfully.
“Hersh…”
“I got this scar in Kandahar.”
His fingers brushed lightly near the mark along his jaw.
“IED hit our convoy.” A faint humorless smile touched his mouth. “Doc said I was lucky.”
But his eyes told another story.
Not lucky.
Haunted.
“I remember lying in that hospital thinking…” He swallowed once. “At least there’s nobody back home waiting for me.”
Oh God.
The tears came instantly.
Because he believed that.
For years.
And I had believed he stopped loving me.
Two lives destroyed by lies.
“I waited for you too,” I whispered brokenly.
His eyes closed briefly.
Like hearing that still physically hurt.
“I know.”
No.
Not enough.
Not yet.
My hands shook as I reached for him this time.
Not the other way around.
Me.
Choosing him.
“Hersh…”
His eyes lifted immediately.
